Objective The purpose of this study was to evaluate three chatbots – OpenAI ChatGPT, Microsoft Bing Chat, and Google Bard – in terms of their responses to a defined set of audiological questions.

Design Each chatbot was presented with the same 10 questions. The authors rated the responses on a Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5. Additional features, such as the number of inaccuracies or errors and the provision of references, were also examined.

Results Most responses given by all three chatbots were rated as satisfactory or better. However all chatbots generated at least a few errors or inaccuracies. ChatGPT achieved the highest overall score, while Bard was the worst. Bard was also the only chatbot unable to provide a response to one of the questions. ChatGPT was the only chatbot that did not provide information about its sources.

Conclusions Chatbots are an intriguing tool that can be used to access basic information in a specialized area like audiology. Nevertheless, one needs to be careful, as correct information is not infrequently mixed in with errors that are hard to pick up unless the user is well versed in the field.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

This study did not receive any funding.

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All data produced in the present study are available as supplementary files.